The Nokia Lumia 900 review

The Nokia Lumia 900 has the weight of two technology behemoths and Windows …

The Nokia Lumia 900 has the weight of two big names on its shoulders. It's Nokia's big re-entry into the US market; it's also the flagship Windows Phone Mango in this country. In anticipatory articles, you can hardly find the term "Lumia 900" separated from the word "premium." The phone is as important as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and as, well, every new iPhone is to iOS.

The phone was recently announced at the two-year contract price of $99, a tag usually applied to new mid-range or old high-end phones (even more recently, AT&T announced the Lumia 900 will be free online for new customers). But the implication is that the low price is meant to attract attention to an OS that has yet to win a significant chunk of the market. It's not a reflection of the handset's quality. Because of this, we largely compare the Lumia 900 to the two flagship phones of the other two major OSes, the iPhone 4S with iOS and the Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0. The iPhone 4 also makes a brief appearance, since it has the same list price as the Lumia 900.

As our review will show, the new hardware can hold up against both of these more expensive phones, and Nokia's total package deserves to be taken seriously. Still, the OS has some maturing to do compared to the other two platforms. Power users for whom price is less of a factor will find much to admire here, but they still may not be won over when it comes to getting the best handset, period.

Hardware: girl, look at that body

The Lumia 900 has a 4.3-inch 800x480 resolution Clear Black AMOLED display embedded in a unibody polycarbonate shell, rounded on the long sides and squared off at the top and bottom. The polycarbonate body has a velvety, slightly rubbery feel to it, making it easy to hold. Due to the screen margins and casing overhang it feels bigger in hand than you might expect of a 4.3-inch-screened phone. As a point of reference, the Galaxy Nexus measures 67.9 millimeters wide to the Lumia 900's 68.5 millimeters, despite the Galaxy Nexus having a 4.65-inch screen. The Galaxy Nexus is also less than a centimeter longer, meaning the Lumia 900 is hardly any friendlier to a jeans pocket.

The Lumia 900 is not pushing the limits of thinness at 11.5 millimeters, but frankly, that's OK. The pursuit of a thin body at the expense of functionality has lately become a circus we wish manufacturers would stop participating in.

The Lumia 900 has three buttons arranged along its right hand side: a volume rocker, a sleep/power button, and a camera button. A headphone jack, microUSB port, and SIM slot are placed on the top. A single speaker is on the bottom edge, and the standard Windows Phone keys are placed below the screen (back, home, and search).

The Lumia 900's buttons, from left: camera, sleep, volume rocker.

The top of the Lumia 900, from left: SIM slot, microUSB port, headphone jack

The bottom of the Lumia 900 with its speaker/microphone grate.

The placement of the sleep button seemed odd to us during our first hands-on at CES, but our suspicions that it would be easier to press have been confirmed; a button centered on the long edge is easier to press with your left forefinger or right thumb than one on the top edge. However, it does mean those fingers have to find somewhere else to sit while you're using the phone. The buttons have decent tactile feedback and aren't too stiff, though the halfway-press on the camera button used to focus to the lens can be difficult to feel.

The Lumia 900's single speaker is pretty quiet, even at the loudest volume setting. Many phones trade volume for distortion, which the Lumia 900 is likely avoiding by setting the volume limit low, but it can be hard to hear without the volume turned all the way up. As for the other sound components, call quality on the Lumia 900 is perfectly fine. There's no noticeable difference from the iPhone 4S.

An iPhone 4S next to the Lumia 900

The phone also has haptic feedback. It's used very sparingly though, mostly when the three soft keys are pressed. The feel of it is gentle and short, but solid. We looked through the settings and there doesn't seem to be a way to extend the vibrations into more usage cases, such as for the keyboard.

As for storage, the Lumia 900 comes with a flat 16GB—unexpandable, unupgradeable. As apps get bigger and photo libraries expand over the course of the next two years (the standard length of a phone contract), that size limit would start to chafe us.

The back of the Lumia 900 with its Carl Zeiss 8-megapixel camera. Scratches accumulate pretty easily on that chrome plate.

This article (and others) basically say that the future of the Windows Phone platform is riding upon the success or failure of this one handset, the Lumia 900.

That, to me, adds risk. If the "flagship" "hero" phone fails to sell very well, then Windows Phone 7.5 platform is in trouble. Later this year, Microsoft will release Windows Phone 8, but in other publications Microsoft is quoted as saying it "doesn't know" if the Lumia 900 can be upgraded to the next OS.

These are questions to ponder, beyond simple specs about how the video camera performs etc etc.

This article (and others) basically say that the future of the Windows Phone platform is riding upon the success or failure of this one handset, the Lumia 900.

That, to me, adds risk. If the "flagship" "hero" phone fails to sell very well, then Windows Phone 7.5 platform is in trouble. Later this year, Microsoft will release Windows Phone 8, but in other publications Microsoft is quoted as saying it "doesn't know" if the Lumia 900 can be upgraded to the next OS.

These are questions to ponder, beyond simple specs about how the video camera performs etc etc.

That's the big question. If existing/recent Windows phones can't upgrade to WP8, then Microsoft should just give up now with Windows Phone; do they want to be like Apple and establish a long-term relationship with the consumer, or do they want to appease the handset makers.

I've already pre-ordered my Lumia 900. Granted, I was an early adopter dork for Windows Phone 7, getting a Samsung Focus the week it came out (and off contract, no less). Had a chance to play with the Lumia during my brother's lunch break (he works at AT&T), and really liked it. The camera, larger screen and hot-spot ability were major selling points for me, so I went ahead and used my upgrade. Really excited, and looking forward to getting it ^_^

Now, that said, I have to readily admit that while I'm a big fan of WP7 and its aesthetic, I can't really recommend it to anyone. For most users I send them straight to iPhones. If they're power users? Android. As such, while I love my chosen platform dearly, I don't have any really compelling reason to recommend it. Similarly, its actually kind of hard to really, quickly, articulate why I love the damn thing so much, at least features-wise. Some of the stuff is easy, some of it takes some explaining, but at least for me none of it is immediately obvious. I've been following WP7 since Paul Thurott first started talking about it, been using it since launch, etc., so its not like I don't have a wealth of reasons to love it!

I love WP7, but Microsoft and Nokia really need to get their marketing pumping now and for WP8, because its really hard to user-evangelize. I've heard some people talk about tech bloggers and other folks who are crooning praises over it, but lets be honest - that's not enough and not really the sort of crowd the average user readily identifies with.

This article (and others) basically say that the future of the Windows Phone platform is riding upon the success or failure of this one handset, the Lumia 900.

That, to me, adds risk. If the "flagship" "hero" phone fails to sell very well, then Windows Phone 7.5 platform is in trouble. Later this year, Microsoft will release Windows Phone 8, but in other publications Microsoft is quoted as saying it "doesn't know" if the Lumia 900 can be upgraded to the next OS.

These are questions to ponder, beyond simple specs about how the video camera performs etc etc.

I would make the distinction that everyone who cares--AT&T, Microsoft, Nokia, fans of the WinPhone platform--is putting *a lot of pressure* on this phone. Is the ultimate success of the platform really riding on this one handset? Personally, I don't think so. Microsoft seems very dedicated to ratcheting up WinPhone's presence, and even if the Lumia 800 falls short of a smashing success, MS's momentum won't falter. The results will say more about whether Nokia will ever really come back to the US, IMO. But all parties are pretty mum on the issue of Windows 8.

That's the big question. If existing/recent Windows phones can't upgrade to WP8, then Microsoft should just give up now with Windows Phone; do they want to be like Apple and establish a long-term relationship with the consumer, or do they want to appease the handset makers.

Don't forget carriers. Lets be honest - the more consumer friendly they try to be, the worse off they'll be with the carriers. I strongly suspect each and every carrier wants Apple to be the only one acting the way Apple does...

Take the Calendar app as an example. At launch, swipes between our agenda, day schedule, and so on are horizontal swipes, consistent with navigation in many other apps. When we switch to month view, we have to swipe vertically to see the next or previous month, but there's no visual indicator that this is the case

No. Agenda, Day and Month all swipe vertically.

Quote:

. The list can't be arranged any other way, meaning if there's an app you use regularly that begins with an unfortunate letter (example: Yelp) and it's not in your top 8 or 16, you'll be doing quite a bit of scrolling to get at it, whether it's on the home screen or in the alphabetized list.

On the home screen, you can put Yelp wherever you want. On the alphabetized list you can tap the '#' and select the first letter of your app. Or you tap the search icon and tap the first letters of your app.

You should also not forget that the big live tiles might be faster to spot visually then regular small icons, and easier to hit. It would be interesting to do an actual speed test of selecting an app between iPhone, Android and WP instead of just assuming that WP will be slower because there are less apps in one view.

I own and use a Samsung Focus and have a love-hate relationship with it. What annoys me the most is the update situation. Coming from an iPhone, it's a big, big problem. Let's say that Nokia sells more than a handful of these, how are folks going to feel when they can't get their first update/security update as the carriers won't allow it? First time buyers may be ok with this, but any customers that have been lured away from the iPhone will be ready to kick it to the curb. The launch may be a big event, but the first update cycle may make or break this platform.

It strikes me that, for a phone, the speaker is in absolutely the wrong place, unless you are one of those folks who uses the speaker phone function with the volume all the way up, holding the phone a foot in front of your face when you talk and then moving the device around to your ear to listen to the response. And so we return to half-duplex telephony...

This article (and others) basically say that the future of the Windows Phone platform is riding upon the success or failure of this one handset, the Lumia 900.

That, to me, adds risk. If the "flagship" "hero" phone fails to sell very well, then Windows Phone 7.5 platform is in trouble. Later this year, Microsoft will release Windows Phone 8, but in other publications Microsoft is quoted as saying it "doesn't know" if the Lumia 900 can be upgraded to the next OS.

These are questions to ponder, beyond simple specs about how the video camera performs etc etc.

I would make the distinction that everyone who cares--AT&T, Microsoft, Nokia, fans of the WinPhone platform--is putting *a lot of pressure* on this phone. Is the ultimate success of the platform really riding on this one handset? Personally, I don't think so. Microsoft seems very dedicated to ratcheting up WinPhone's presence, and even if the Lumia 800 falls short of a smashing success, MS's momentum won't falter. The results will say more about whether Nokia will ever really come back to the US, IMO. But all parties are pretty mum on the issue of Windows 8.

Oops, didn't see that free part.

Well, everyone saw WP7 go nowhere, so then they (maybe the same people you said that cared) said, "WP7 needs a high end flagship, as the current offerings are very basic." Well, here it is. If that fails to go anywhere, then what?

Oh that's right, "Verizon."

Personally I hope it succeeds in some way, then competition will force Android to get a bit better - ICS is a good step in the right direction, but I need to see more.

My eyes, my eyes! Those square corners...try gettin in & out of a car with that thing in your jeans pocket lol!And all because of Apple's rotten-to-the-core patent BS.Thank GOD for Google is all I have to say!

This article (and others) basically say that the future of the Windows Phone platform is riding upon the success or failure of this one handset, the Lumia 900.

That, to me, adds risk. If the "flagship" "hero" phone fails to sell very well, then Windows Phone 7.5 platform is in trouble. Later this year, Microsoft will release Windows Phone 8, but in other publications Microsoft is quoted as saying it "doesn't know" if the Lumia 900 can be upgraded to the next OS.

These are questions to ponder, beyond simple specs about how the video camera performs etc etc.

I would make the distinction that everyone who cares--AT&T, Microsoft, Nokia, fans of the WinPhone platform--is putting *a lot of pressure* on this phone. Is the ultimate success of the platform really riding on this one handset? Personally, I don't think so. Microsoft seems very dedicated to ratcheting up WinPhone's presence, and even if the Lumia 800 falls short of a smashing success, MS's momentum won't falter. The results will say more about whether Nokia will ever really come back to the US, IMO. But all parties are pretty mum on the issue of Windows 8.

Realistically, though, at some point they have to start moving some units. I mean, yeah, they can keep throwing money at it, but if they can't show some actual market share at some point, surely people will stop paying attention sooner or later.

Edit: just to be clear, I'm rooting for WinPhone to be great. I'm an Android user for the foreseeable future, but I'd love to have options.

Am I missing something? For a comparative analysis between the flagship Windows, iOS, and Android phones there is a very noticeable absence of the Android part of that comparison. I don't see a single image of the Galaxy Nexus or any of its traits in the whole review. The only thing I see is one synthetic benchmark comparison. Sure, there is frequent reference to it in the text, but largely it is in saying that the Lumia 900 is better. Please, if you're going to make these statements, especially things like "On design, it certainly wins against most Android phones" I think most would like at least some of these claims to be substantiated with visual data. If you don't have access to the Galaxy Nexus, then you really shouldn't bill it as a true comparison.

When browsers are similar in software efficiency then CPU becomes everything.

The only way to test a browser is against another browser on similar hardware. You sure as hell don't give one browser an extra core and determine it to be better because it performed the test faster.

The iphone 4 is a (much slower) single core processor, but had much higher javascript performance. Therefore, at least for sunspider, the software efficiency is no where near comparable. iOS is roughly 4x faster per unit of CPU performance.

Hence this:

superslav223 wrote:

No actually you're really just measuring the hardware. You put a dual core against a single core on a javascript benchmark which is really just number crunching.

I must say that whoever was in charge of the industrial design really paid attention to detail - going so far as to line up all the concentric radii of the 'CE' mark and other ports with the outer edges of the phone. Very clean, especially compared to some of Nokia's previous frankenphones.

I have a HTC Trophy my only choice with Verizon and I actually really enjoy it. I also don't appear to have the browser issues that you mention in your article Casey. Ars looks like it does on my home systems Chrome browser in regards to font sizing etc. I'm wondering what is different between the Lumia and Trophy in that regard.

Anyhow I'm quite happy with my windows phone, I like the clean appearance and functions of it. I am not a power user, but honestly I never have gotten the point of that. It is a phone, a tool, and I use it as such. Power usage for computers I understand, for phones? Not so much.

When browsers are similar in software efficiency then CPU becomes everything.

The only way to test a browser is against another browser on similar hardware. You sure as hell don't give one browser an extra core and determine it to be better because it performed the test faster.

Except we're not testing a browser, we're testing a sartphone. The browser comes bundled with it, I'm not even sure there's a choice. So testing browsing on the Nokia vs browsing an the Samsung seems fair.

You can't argue that the browser tests are unfair speed comparisons because the Lumia 900 doesn't have a dual-core processor. This isn't a PC: whatever you get when the phone ships is what will be in it forever, and raw hardware will still give a huge edge in anything that's CPU-bound, whether it's the browser or a game.

Even if Microsoft had a super-lean Javascript engine, it wouldn't matter because the engines on Android and iPhone are already lean *and* run on dual- or even quad-core chips. To abuse car analogies: it's like arguing your family sedan should be as fast as a sports car because it has the same V6 powerplant, and all you need to do is give it a similarly light chassis. It isn't, and you can't.

Except we're not testing a browser, we're testing a sartphone. The browser comes bundled with it, I'm not even sure there's a choice. So testing browsing on the Nokia vs browsing an the Samsung seems fair.

Oh I guess you didn't read the article:"The browser is, unfortunately, one of the phone's weaker points, relatively speaking. This is one of the few aspects of the phone we are able to benchmark."

Just one thing on the app bar buttons though: buttons with icons (such as seen in the Messages app for example) do rotate when the phone is in landscape. But for a text only button, how do you propose to rotate it? I can't see any other way that sign in button could be presented with text only and not get in the way of landscape.

One could say move the entire bar to the bottom of the screen, but then that goes against how the app bar works for everything else. Should that be changed when the overwhelming majority of app bar buttons are icon-only that do rotate?

Nokia Lumia 900: The Slower Smartphone for People Who Take the Subway!

Just possibly this isn't the "image" they're going for...

You know I have not read a single user review of a recent WP7 phone where speed was a complaint. In fact I have read numerous reviews about how nice it is to not have Android doing its random stutters and slowdowns. That's what is missing in all these comparisons, the random crap Android users have to deal with.

1. There is a tutorial for the Windows Phone. It's an app called Help+How-to, and it's baked in as of Mango. Yes, it should start at launch, or default as one of the front 8 tiles, but it is definitely there.2. Storage: The Lumia (and I think all Windows Phones now?) comes with 25GB Skydrive storage at no extra charge, so photos, Office documents and other Skydrive-supporting apps have lots of extra storage they can access. Considering the speed of doing so over LTE (and Wifi, of course), this isn't something to sneeze at, and definitely worth mentioning when talking about included storage. (Something I would have considered debatable at slower speeds)3. Local storage for Nokia Maps also seriously helps with battery life. Maps always seems to be a battery drainer, so local storage for them is nice. (Yes, I know having this right below my cloud storage comment is funny)4. The app list doesn't require scrolling at all. There is a letter corresponding to the first letter of the app you can touch, which takes you to an alphabet list, then all you have to do is touch "Y" and you're at Yelp. It's faster than swiping a few screens over for lesser-used apps, and far more expandable without losing speed. Yes, this definitely falls into "too subtle" for the navigation you mentioned, but it's a great way to get to apps not on your Home screen.5. Information density. You didn't mention anything about Live Tiles and how they contribute to information density. I agree that many apps leave sparse screens that make you go "why did I have to come here?", but the counter to that is many apps give you what you want without you ever having to open the app. So if you need to see today's weather, the Live Tile for your weather app could have the current weather, so you don't have to open it, unless you want more detail.6. I would love to see a normal day with WiFi on, and WiFi off. I habitually leave WiFi off as a battery drainer on my phones, but I have heard conflicting reports about how with LTE, leaving WiFi on and letting it connect when it can is overall better for the battery. I'd love to know what is actually the case.7. Developer interest - This is one thing MS still does really well. Despite a relatively minuscule market share compared to iOS/Android, WP7 has a strong and gaining folloing from the developer community. So this is something I don't think MS hurting on.

Nokia Lumia 900: The Slower Smartphone for People Who Take the Subway!

Just possibly this isn't the "image" they're going for...

Anandtech has out their own review...

"Summing up the Lumia 900 as a device is pretty easy, it's superficially a beefed up, larger Lumia 800. Spelled out explicitly, the changes are a larger 4.3" SAMOLED+ display with a full RGB stripe, a front facing 720p camera, and LTE connectivity for AT&T. When it launches later in Europe, instead of LTE, the Lumia 900 will bring DC-HSPA+ and all around improved cellular connectivity courtesy MDM9200. The Lumia 900 is thinner, but obviously larger in x and y to accommodate the larger display, but in the hand and pocket the difference isn't all that huge. The end result is a device I can find only positive things to talk about with, and it's the Lumia that finally rounds out Nokia's complete entrant Windows Phone lineup."

Nokia Lumia 900: The Slower Smartphone for People Who Take the Subway!

Just possibly this isn't the "image" they're going for...

You know I have not read a single user review of a recent WP7 phone where speed was a complaint. In fact I have read numerous reviews about how nice it is to not have Android doing its random stutters and slowdowns. That's what is missing in all these comparisons, the random crap Android users have to deal with.

Agreed, I've yet to personally have any speed issues with my windows phone, I'm sort of confused actually by remarks like this. My wife has an Android and I honestly prefer my HTC Trophy to her Android.